The USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll has punished the Texas Women’s Basketball team for its first loss of the season. The Lady Longhorns were a perfect 18-0 and No. 2 in the poll before falling 70-65 at the LSU Tigers on Sunday. Now Texas has dropped two spots to No. 4 in the latest ranking.
17-0 UConn remains the No. 1 team in the nation, as spot the Huskies have filled all season. South Carolina and UCLA both jumped over the Longhorns into No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. Texas has a huge game at the Lady Gamecocks on Thursday.
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Three of the top five teams and five of the top ten reside in the SEC with Texas. Vanderbilt sits just behind the Longhorns at No. 5. LSU checks in at No. 6, up six spots after beating UT. Kentucky lands at No. 9.
Texas coach Vic Schaefer is not happy with the schedule the SEC gave Lady Longhorns. “They obviously have a vendetta against Texas because not only have we started in the league, and I get to play South Carolina twice last year, this year, I get LSU twice,” Schaefer said after the loss. “I have to play South Carolina on the road this year, as well as LSU. I get them back-to-back in the same week. Now, make that make sense. The league is hard enough as it is, but then to bless me, me and my group, with that, it really has a stench to it. … I’m really disappointed in the league for putting our kids in that position, but we play whoever’s in front of us.”
The Longhorns opened the SEC season with back-to-back home wins against No. 17 Ole Miss and unranked Auburn before traveling to Baton Rouge. But Shaefer also acknowledged the loss is squarely on Texas’ shoulders. “They were tougher than us today. This was our worst performance of the year.” he said.
USA TODAY Sports Women’s College Basketball Coaches Poll
Week 11 results: Published January 13, 2026
|
Rank |
Team |
Record |
PTS |
1st |
Prev |
Chg |
Hi/Lo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
17-0 |
775 |
31 |
1 |
– |
1/1 |
|
|
2 |
17-1 |
733 |
0 |
3 |
+1 |
2/3 |
|
|
3 |
15-1 |
705 |
0 |
4 |
+1 |
3/4 |
|
|
4 |
18-1 |
683 |
0 |
2 |
-2 |
2/4 |
|
|
5 |
17-0 |
654 |
0 |
6 |
+1 |
5/21 |
|
|
6 |
16-2 |
574 |
0 |
12 |
+6 |
5/12 |
|
|
7 |
14-2 |
565 |
0 |
9 |
+2 |
7/15 |
|
|
8 |
16-1 |
545 |
0 |
10 |
+2 |
7/12 |
|
|
9 |
16-2 |
513 |
0 |
7 |
-2 |
7/20 |
|
|
10 |
16-3 |
499 |
0 |
11 |
+1 |
10/22 |
|
|
11 |
16-2 |
428 |
0 |
8 |
-3 |
6/11 |
|
|
12 |
14-3 |
407 |
0 |
5 |
-7 |
5/12 |
|
|
13 |
14-2 |
402 |
0 |
14 |
+1 |
12/23 |
|
|
14 |
16-1 |
376 |
0 |
15 |
+1 |
14/NR |
|
|
15 |
15-2 |
340 |
0 |
19 |
+4 |
15/NR |
|
|
16 |
16-3 |
339 |
0 |
17 |
+1 |
13/17 |
|
|
17 |
15-3 |
289 |
0 |
16 |
-1 |
10/21 |
|
|
18 |
18-0 |
275 |
0 |
20 |
+2 |
18/NR |
|
|
19 |
14-3 |
212 |
0 |
13 |
-6 |
10/19 |
|
|
20 |
12-3 |
205 |
0 |
22 |
+2 |
9/22 |
|
|
21 |
17-1 |
179 |
0 |
24 |
+3 |
21/NR |
|
|
22 |
12-4 |
94 |
0 |
25 |
+3 |
13/25 |
|
|
23 |
13-5 |
77 |
0 |
18 |
-5 |
8/23 |
|
|
24 |
14-1 |
76 |
0 |
NR |
+2 |
24/NR |
|
|
25 |
14-3 |
42 |
0 |
NR |
+2 |
20/NR |
Schools Dropped Out
No. 21 USC; No. 23 Washington;
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Others Receiving Votes
Illinois 24; Nebraska 21; USC 19; Washington 12; Duke 5; Oregon 2; Oklahoma State 2; South Dakota State 1; Minnesota 1; Arizona State 1;
List Of Voters
The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 31 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. The board for the 2025-26 season: Octavia Blue, Kennesaw State; Ashleen Bracey, Illinois-Chicago; Jen Brown, Queens; Dan Burt, Duquesne; Jeff Cammon, Saint Mary’s; Fred Chmiel, Bowling Green; Janell Crayton, Bethune-Cookman; Denise Dillon, Villanova; Carrie Eighmey, South Dakota; Dalila Eshe, Yale; Heather Ezell, Wyoming; Bill Fennelly, Iowa State; Aqua Franklin, Lamar; Ty Grace, Howard; Hana Haden, Georgia Southern; Corry Irvin, Chicago State; Renee Jimenez, UC-Santa Barbara; Chris Kielsmeier, Cleveland State; Mike Lane, NJIT; Amy Mallon, Drexel; Kristen Mattio, Northern Colorado; Mike McGuire, Radford; Kim McNeill, East Carolina; Dan Nielson, Utah Valley; Shawn Poppie, Clemson; Terry Primm, Siena; Samantha Quigley Smith, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville; Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt; Jonathan Tsipis, Western Carolina; Coquese Washington, Rutgers; Trevor Woodruff, Bucknell.
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Helpful Info
*The highest and lowest ranking each team has held during the designated season. Any team that starts the season unranked and/or falls out of the top 25 during the season will reflect a “NR” (not ranked) designation as its lowest rank.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Texas Women’s Basketball falls in latest Coaches Poll after first loss
